Today Is One of the Happiest Days of My Life!

One of my prayers for this past year was to grow in the joy of the Lord.  I had noticed that while I loved to serve God and obey Him, I would often find myself stressed over different things than moving in joy.  Despite praying for joy, I still felt stress and negative thoughts.  Then God told me to start claiming this every day...

"Today is the one of the happiest days of my life!"

It sounds cheesy, and believe me I felt kind of dumb claiming it early on.  And I had to ask myself, "Why!?  Why is today such a happy day?  I'm not going to claim something that isn't true."  And it made me do a reflection on my life.  What really makes me happy?  What do I depend on for my joy?  If certain things were taken from my life, could I still be happy?  Then I realized, with all honesty, that my real joy MUST come from God.  And it does!  And so when I claim, "Today is one of the happiest days of my life" I also add, "Because God is with me!"  He is my joy.  Heaven is HIM.  And He is with me always, even in the tougher times.  Thats why joy can't be stolen. 

Perspective then began to change for me.  To be honest, the sky began to look a lot more blue to me.  The clouds and the sun became more beautiful.  I began to notice little things to be thankful for.  I remember driving with a friend who wasn't in the best of moods.  She was complaining about different things that I could see didn't really even need her attention.  As I was driving and listening, I noticed how beautiful things were around me.  I said, "Wow, today is such a clear, beautiful day!"  She responded negatively, "Yeah, you notice because its usually so polluted."  And then I said, "Wow, look at those buildings, the architecture is really cool!"  And she responded, "Yeah, but the buildings are so dirty, they need to be cleaned."  With every positive thing I would say, she would respond negatively.  And then she suddenly realized how she was acting and stopped complaining and was silent for a while.  She too began to see how a lot of life is all about perspective... that joy is a choice.  Her mood soon began to lighten as well. 

Choose joy.  God is with you!  =)  1Thessalonians 5:16 - "Be joyful always."  God bless and Merry Christmas!

Cuteness Update...

Love Room always tends to churn out the best pictures... enjoy!

Da Heen with my umbrella and bookbag... the little ones love to put on my stuff

Da Heen and Min Seung

Min Seung posing

Another Da Heen shot

Min Seung

Soo Yun

With Da Heen

With Soo Yun, Da Heen, and Da Heen's foot... not sure why

With Mi Yun...

God bless!

Claiming the Truth

Hebrews 4:12 says, "The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword."  Proverbs 4:22 says that God's word is "healing to all their flesh" for those who find it.  John 6:63 says, "The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life." 

It is incredibly powerful to claim the word of God in prayer.  The Bible is loaded with wonderful promises for God's people just waiting to be claimed. 

Living as a missionary, Philippians 4:19 is a verse I consistently claim, "And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus."  I just replace the "your" with "my" and make it my prayer/statement of faith.  I declare that God will sustain me and will never let me fall (Psalm 55:22). 

Another verse I often claim is Isaiah 54:17, "No weapon forged against you will prevail."  Whenever I am praying for someone's protection or strengthening I will include God's promise in that verse that no weapon forged against them will prevail.  That God is for them so none can stand against them (Romans 8:31).  That God is with them and is mighty to save (Zephaniah 3:17).  There is power in claiming the Word of God! 

While having an extended prayer time for a very sick friend, my friends and I spoke these verses over our friend and prayed through each of them... I encourage you to claim them as well...

Exodus 15:26               Psalm 2:8                    Psalm 4:8                     Psalm 3:5-6    

Psalm 18:28-30           Zephaniah 3:17           Genesis 15:1                Numbers 6:24-26

Psalm 20:6-8               Psalm 27:1                  Psalm 27:13-14            Psalm 29:10-11

Psalm 34:7                  Psalm 34:18                Psalm 37:25-26             Psalm 55:22

Galatians 3:13             Proverbs 4:20-22         Exodus 23:25               Psalm 97:5

Luke 4:39                     Job 33:25                     Psalm 103:2-5             Psalm 118:17

Jeremiah 17:14            Luke 6:19                     Psalm 91:9-10             Psalm 91:4

Psalm 91:11-13           Luke 13:12                   Acts 9:32-35                Malachi 4:2

Luke 10:19                   Ephesians 6:16            Philippians 1:6            2Timothy 1:7

1John 4:4                     Isaiah 43:1-2               Isaiah 43:19                Revelation 3:8

Isaiah 46:4                  Isaiah 49:15-16           Isaiah 49:23                Isaiah 54:17

Revelation 22:17         Isaiah 58:8                  Isaiah 60:1-3               Jeremiah 29:11

Isaiah 55:11 - So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

God bless!

Picture Update

These pictures are either from just before I left or were taken by my friend Semy over the previous months... enjoy!

With Ji Hoon, Dal Woo, and Ye Rang

One more time

With some of the other elementary school boys

One more... they love the camera!

With Min Ho

With Jung Ho

Eun Ji

Soo Jin

Some of the Love Room girls with Semy... we were at my friend's burger joint

Min Seung

Da Heen... not sure why they both had this pose

Hae Ran

God bless!

Hope for the Haters

Recently I've been reflecting on the life of Joseph.  Joseph had a couple powerful, clear dreams when he was young, but he made the mistake of sharing them with people who mocked him for them and became jealous of him.  The dreams seemed ludicrous to them, so much to the point that they wanted to kill Joseph.  Then Joseph's brother Judah decided rather than killing Joseph they should sell him into slavery in order to gain a profit.  I imagine Joseph's last memory of his brothers was hearing Judah talk with the slave traders and give him away.

Years and years later, Joseph would be proved right.  His prophetic dreams would be fulfilled and he would have great authority.  God would use him in an amazingly powerful way.  He would also be able forgive his brothers for their hating of him and open his arms to them. 

I wonder what Joseph thought about Judah though.  I wonder if he had any idea the spiritual line that would follow Judah.  That King David would come from Judah.  And that our Messiah, Jesus Christ, would also come from his line.  As Judah had felt Joseph would never amount to anything, I wonder if Joseph ever felt the same way about Judah.

I believe as God's Spirit is poured out many of those who had once rejected and hindered the Spirit's work will in turn be redeemed and used in even more powerful ways than those they persecuted.  Another example would be Peter and Paul in the New Testament.  Everyone greatly respected Peter but feared Paul (then Saul) and probably felt he was of Satan.  But then Paul would be redeemed and used by God in a far more powerful way. 

There is always hope for people... some of those we least suspect will end up being used in the greatest of ways!

God bless!